As you can see, he didn't always look like Santa Claus. Her attacker was caught as he ran away. He rented an apartment in Midtown and told his wife he worked nights. But first, he wanted to return to those two murders from 47 years ago. South Hackensack, Richard Cottingham, Lorraine Kelly, Mary Ann Pryor, Bergen County Prosecutor's Chief of Detectives Robert Anzilotti, Ecuadorian National Pleads Guilty To Brutal Stabbing Death Of Popular Bergen County Chef, Franklin Lakes Driver Indicted In Teaneck T-Bone Crash That Kil, Paterson Non-Violence Activist Shot Dead In Police Standoff Was, Man Killed By Amtrak Train In Central Jersey Was Family Breadwi, WATCH: YouTube Video Shows Rapper Assaulting Bergen Shop Rite W, Motel Guest Covered In Lotion Rescued From Knife-Wielding Woman, DWI Suspected In Horrific Route 80 Crash In Bergen County. His search for a killer led him to a man already locked away, in New Jersey State Prison, 75 miles from his office. But he told Mr. Cottingham. His upcoming sentencing will add more time to a prison term that already extends beyond his remaining years. On the way out, he bumped the author on the shins with a bag that felt like it contained bowling balls, Vronsky said. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Once again, the victim did not appear in further proceedings and the case was dismissed.[6]. I just kind of looked at it and touched it and put it in a box where I had some dried flowers for my mother when she passed.. So we just stayed in the car and we kept talking to each other, getting to know each other and so forth., If the rain wasnt there, they would have just went to the mall and that would have been it, he said, And I would have went to work.. On Tuesday, Richard Cottingham, 74, sat in a wheelchair in beige prison scrubs as he pleaded guilty to kidnapping the teenage girls and raping them for days before he drowned them in a motel room bathtub. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, Times Square Torso Ripper: Sex and Murder on The Deuce, cataloging 17,000 years of pathological homicide. Vronsky and Weiss had been meeting with Cottingham in prison since the spring of 2017, counseling him to make the confession. He did a U-turn in a bank parking lot and approached, he said. This is a private property. For years, the three confessions remained a secret, until January 2020, when a true-crime writer who had been visiting Mr. Cottingham in prison, Peter Vronsky, announced that the inmate had revealed his crimes in interviews for a forthcoming book. He had pornographic artwork, adhesive tape, books about S&M, said Geberth. They found an 18-year-old victim who'd been bitten and stabbed bound with handcuffs. startxref [7] In a 2009 interview, Cottingham admitted to the murders and claimed that he severed the heads and hands of the victims to prevent their identification, as he was acquainted with Goodarzi and had been seen with her in a bar the night before.[2]. 0000001250 00000 n The series features interviews with former sex workers, including Barbara Amaya, who was raped and robbed at gunpoint by a man she believes was Cottingham, although she was inexplicably spared. His murders were not the outcome of stalking or planning but of fleeting encounters. Richard Cottingham, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. Like two little dolls at Christmastime.. "From the sense of other things that Im uncovering, he was a very busy boy., I think the math worked out to one every six weeks, Vronsky also said. Richard Cottingham, convicted of murdering prostitute and kidnapping three. On Monday, July 13, 1969, at approximately 8:00 p.m., On March 1, 1970, a group of hikers came across a young woman's naked body in the woods to the west of Tweed Boulevard in, At approximately 7:00 a.m. on the morning of December 16, 1977, the body of X-ray technician, At 9:30 a.m. on May 22, 1980, police entered Room 117 at the same Quality Inn where Carr and Street were murdered and found 18-year-old, This page was last edited on 2 March 2023, at 15:20. WjgF\A9Ro9r/;l5Gh3h}NG2L -S$B{s"=z{ 0EaSe,&@yJQ>`n; ;dj7n (~>*}fEx*\W]xvpt]/k"0JTj4%`G?t$8I@FmYkr(_5_+ jfbXP{]~&I6"%}\STHD Ld2=ENhk$)HESdX,g o+IkRC~eC1 dm"GZBDM7~K&'/9"[{$AXH'my They'd left home for a trip 13 miles (21 kilometers) north to . However, his family moved to River Vale, New Jersey, when he was 12 years old. My whole life has been this, she said. In fact, Mr. Cottingham lurked around the fringes of a seedy Times Square and the prostitutes who worked its streets. She was a mother, she was a wife, a daughter and a grandmother taken far too early. These meetings went on for months, and then years, on top of Mr. Anzilottis regular caseload. This is the house where the "Times Square Killer," Richard Cottingham, lived between 1975 and 1980. The victim's hands were tightly handcuffed behind her back and police would later lift a fingerprint matching Cottingham, the only fingerprint successfully found from any of his known murders. Between 1970 and 1974, Cottingham and his wife, Janet, lived at an apartment block called Ledgewood Terrace in Little Ferry, New Jersey. [12] Both bodies had their hands and heads removed, and had been doused with lighter fluid and set on fire. Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates. Its mind-boggling and very scary, especially to know theres more of them out there.. [5] On May 15, 1980, Jean Reyner was strangled and her throat cut in New York's historic Seville Hotel. He married in 1970 and became a father of. The investigators handed Ms. Mulder possessions of Jackies from half a century past. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Richard is related to Rosemarie Marie Cunningham and Larry J Cunningham as well as 3 additional people. I was shocked that it was a serial killer, Moye said of his mothers confessed murderer. Richard Cottingham who is already serving time in state prison for several . He tried a different approach. Although Cottingham has formally admitted to eighteen killings and has claimed to have killed as many as 100, he is known to have only murdered seventeen girls between 1967 and 1980 and attempted to kill a further four. Cottingham primarily sought prostitutes who were petite blondes in their late teens to mid-twenties. 21 23 document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. Because I was with them for a couple of days, he replied, according to a transcript, and got to know them., It was raining that day in August 1974, and Mr. Cottingham, then 28, was driving to work in Manhattan when he passed the two girls walking in the opposite direction. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon. (1981, June 25). 0000004535 00000 n 0000010308 00000 n His "justification" for doing this was that he "didn't like anyone getting one over" on him. In 1964, Cottingham graduated from Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale, New Jersey. Knowing better, Harp, just 13 years old, refused. And last week, three more were added to his grisly toll. 0000001071 00000 n Cottingham didnt like the idea, apparently wanting to continue their dialogue. Filming Location in Lodi, New Jersey, United States, Filming Location in Paterson, New Jersey, United States, Filming Location in Clifton, New Jersey, United States, Filming Location in Bloomfield, New Jersey, United States, Crime Location Wylie, Texas, United States, Crime Location Memphis, Tennessee, United States, Place of Interest Brooklyn, New York, United States, Crash Site Location Beaufort, South Carolina, United States. Cottingham had kept these items as souvenirs so that he could remember his victims and relive his attacks. The house is close to Lodi High School, the Riverside Cemetery and Interstate 80. Select this result to view Richard P Cunningham's phone number, address, and more. ,X3ieG(>]/TUW#gI" p&gGgy`Un(aE6e#./"e3 Anyone can read what you share. However, please be aware that not allowing certain cookies may impact your experience of the site. He kept his glasses case tucked in a vest pocket of his prison scrubs, beneath his white beard, and folded his hands over his broad belly. Cottingham had stuffed Streets body under the bed for housekeeping to find, Vronsky said. The following is a list of his victims in chronological order. Jacalyn "Jackie" Harp, aged 13, was randomly ambushed as she walked home in the evening of July 17, 1968, from school band practice in Midland Park and strangled with the leather strap of her bag. I could feel it.. After dismembering Goodarzi, Cottingham lit her torso on fire, along with a second unidentified woman, who was found next to Goodarzi on the same bed. The police photograph on the left was taken in June of 1980. Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/nyregion/new-jersey-serial-killer-cottingham-anzilotti.html. . But Mr. Anzilotti kept pressing him: You know youre going to tell me.. 7{(~tm LB IBJ*ZB`0 It is situated at 29 Vreeland Street in Lodi, New Jersey. Soon, Cottingham persuaded Blase to go for a drink with him. Prosecutors will seek dual life sentences to run alongside his current lifetime term when Cottingham is sentenced on July 9 for what Musella said were the willful, deliberate, and premediated murders of Mary Ann Prior and Lorraine Kelly. Monday marked the first time Moye ever laid eyes on Cottingham, who dismembered some of victims, including two women whose bodies were found without their heads and hands in a Times Square motel in December 1979. I was able to get almostany woman to do whatever I wanted them to do . The items included necklaces, broaches, earrings, and other pieces of jewelry. View Richard Cottingham's record in Manchester, NJ including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. This number may increase in the future, as he has stated in the past that his victim count is much higher. They have also lived in Manasquan, NJ and Ada, MI. Cottingham was apprehended in the hallway by arriving police officers. He would let his guard down, Mr. Anzilotti said. Mr. Anzilotti insisted that this case be resolved in open court. 0000004577 00000 n 0000006846 00000 n Hed been a married father of three, but the Lodi resident - who would brutalize his victims bodies, cutting off limbs, heads and breasts - would later become known as the Torso Killer" for what he left behind. Questioning Mr. Cottingham was complicated. The weather worsened. %%EOF One would remind him of a TV actress. Over time, though, one investigator was slowly developing a theory. He had come further in closing cases than his younger self could have imagined. 0000000016 00000 n Their heads and hands had been cut off. But Cottingham had other victims, and he would later boast of killing 85 to 100 people. Before his arrest, he was a successful computer operator who worked at the Blue Cross-Blue Shield insurance company in Midtown Manhattan. I was shocked that one human being was capable of all this carnage, Moye said of Cottingham. Cottinghamss name came up several times, but it didnt fit for me, she said. He then drowned them in a bathtub, he said, and dumped their bodies in the woods in a wooded area behind Rolling Ridge Road in Montvale. Since his incarceration, he has attempted suicide on two occasions. iP^ -KvWZvxhc'm$93tSz =oBTmD]+)bTJ T|u>/. Her youth and difference in appearance, with a boyish haircut, set her apart from the other victims. With Ms. Pryor and a judge watching on Zoom that day, Mr. Cottingham pleaded guilty to the two murders. xb```"WVf~g`0pt 9"~S?``Z V|bG!+N}TzYl@2 `QD2 @DACEDJaOs6x?+[Ihlrt ? Once, he outright explained his hesitation: He said, I know once I give you that case, Ill never see you again, Mr. Anzilotti recalled last month. He tortured women before he killed them and did terrible things to them, and yet we still dont know who he is because he preyed on sex workers, Berlinger said, adding that he hopes this series helps destigmatize sex work and potentially solve more cold cases. 0000007078 00000 n Richard Cottingham was born in 1946 and grew up largely in New Jersey. Premiering on Dec. 29, the three-part season explores the case of Richard Cottingham, a New Jersey man who was dubbed "The Torso Killer" and found guilty of killing 11 women between 1967 and 1980. Months later, in May 1980, another prostitute from Times Square was found dead, this time in a New Jersey motel; that murder was linked to yet another at the same location. In 1981, he was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to nearly 200 years in prison. 0 A real sick bastard did this, retired NYPD detective Jim Riegel, who was working as a beat cop that day, recalls his sergeant telling him in the new Netflix series Crime Scene: The Times Square Killer, out Wednesday. He forced his victims to address him as "master". He described things only the killer would know, like where hed thrown her car keys afterward. The chief pressed ahead with his list. In 2004, Vronsky published his first book on homicidal maniacs, Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, an exhaustive look at executioners slayings dating back to ancient Rome. That night, city firefighters responded to a blaze at a motel in Times Square, the New York Daily News reported. But it was a way to get him comfortable to talk to me about murders.. The people listed below were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Lodi, New Jersey. Over decades, through his rise from sergeant to detective to chief of detectives, Robert Anzilotti plugged away at cold cases in New Jersey involving young womens murders. Vogel was found dead in her own car in Ridgefield Park, nude and bound. The sergeant was undeterred. His proclivity toward violence and the lack of solid profiling tactics for serial killers made Vronsky believe that Cottinghams claim of 100 victims was possible. Richard Cottingham pleaded guilty to murder in the death of one Long Island woman and admitted under oath to killing four others. Ive never seen rain like that, he said. Richard Cottingham, serial killer from New Jersey operating in New York between 1967 and 1980. The little perks for the older man the pizza, the poker, the distraction from prison life were always in the service of the younger mans long game. During a search of the house, investigators discovered personal items belonging to some of his victims. These objects, along with his fingerprint on the handcuffs, were presented as evidence by prosecutors at his trial. Cottingham has confessed to murdering 12 women. With Cottinghams next victim, a killers hunting ground of sorts began to form. This murder was later linked to the 1977 murder of Maryann Carr, who was left in the same motel's parking lot. To this day, the other young female has never been identified. The confessed killer then fatally bludgeoned Sheila Heiman, a 33-year-old mother of three, in July 1973, at her North Woodmere, NY, home, where her husband found her upon returning from shopping, authorities said. In April of 1979, he started living in the basement of the property after his wife initiated divorce proceedings against him for "abandonment" and "mental cruelty.". [5][17], The charges listed in Cottingham's New Jersey indictment included kidnapping, attempted murder, aggravated assault, aggravated assault with deadly weapon, aggravated sexual assault while armed (rape), aggravated sexual assault while armed (sodomy), aggravated sexual assault while armed (fellatio), possession of a weapon (switchblade knife), and possession of controlled substances (secobarbital, amobarbital and diazepam). There were at least five unsolved killings of girls, each an open wound for families seeking resolution. She knew that Mr. Anzilotti had solved Denises killing, too. In the 1970s, he had preyed on prostitutes in Times Square 30 miles but a world away from Montvale not just killing them, but torturing and dismembering them. 21 0 obj <> endobj Much of Cottinghams crimes were not murders, but other violent crimes like abductions and rapes. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a photograph of Jean Reyner. By all accounts, he seemed to be leading an everyday life in Lodi, New Jersey, with his wife and three kids. [13][14] Anzilotti had spent 15 years interviewing Cottingham, working toward the confession. If hes going to confess to some others, if they can get him to talk, just for those families if he can confess to those, that right there would be I dont know the right word to say, Ms. Mulder said. Correctional officers found contraband and evidence of bookmaking and transferred Mr. Cottingham to solitary confinement. No one could find any clues in the girls backgrounds: no drugs, no trouble with the law. But something a hunch, past investigative speculation, the proximity of the crimes drew Mr. Anzilotti to the prisoner. In the new docuseries, the second in Netflixs Crime Scene anthology, director Joe Berlinger dissects the Torso Killers murder spree against the backdrop of the sexually charged, crime-ridden culture of 1970s Times Square and how it provided the predator with a fertile hunting ground. In early December 1979, firefighters were called to the Travel Inn Motor Hotel on 42nd Street as a fire burned in room 417. Mr. Anzilotti, by then a sergeant, arranged a surprise search of the inmates cell the day after the Super Bowl. It took some effort to convince him to go to court and let me make it public, Anzilotti said Tuesday. But the arrest in 1980 changed everything, exposing Richard's double life and deadly exploits. His yearbook photo shows a cross-country runner with blond hair slicked back. The police pursued a welter of tips, rumors and false alarms, The New York Times reported at the time. Instead, he drove her to the Quality Inn, where he tortured, beat and sexually assaulted her for hours, until a maid heard her scream. Taking a bus to another location, Cottingham and Blase spent some time together. Cottingham's confirmed killings resulted in nine convictions and a further eight confessions under non-prosecution agreements, leading to him serving multiple life sentences in New Jersey prisons. 0000002847 00000 n The police believed they had given up on the bus and were trying to hitchhike to a mall. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. Its hard to understand how someone could be like that. He had three children, two boys and a girl, with his wife. Fifty years after his mother was strangled and thrown from a Long Island bridge, John Moye finally got a glimpse of the wickedness that altered his life forever. When they arrived, one firefighter attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a woman they found on the bed. Hes hedged around and all but confessed.. When you have a series of crimes today, everything goes through the computers, andwe have computer analysis and a wayof moving these through jurisdictionalboundaries. 0000009264 00000 n The victim, Valerie Street, had just been busted in Miami for prostitution, and was last seen getting picked up by a man in New York City. And later that same month, a fifth woman was found mutilated in the former Hotel Seville near Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Canadian author Peter Vronsky is now writing his second book on the horrifying killing spree that culminated in May 1980 at a New Jersey motel, where cops arrested Cottingham after he handcuffed, stabbed and bit an 18-year-old woman. Serial Killers: The Method and Madness of Monsters, List of serial killers in the United States, List of serial killers by number of victims, "New Jersey's 'Torso Killer' admits murdering 3 teenage girls over 50 years ago", "Justice Story: 'Times Square Ripper' revealed to be mild-mannered husband from suburban Jersey", "Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective", "First of Three Trials of Jerseyan in Prostitute Slayings Nears End", "Killer of 2 Is Guilty of 3 More Slayings", "Legislator Gaynor Honors Detectives Who Solved 50 Year Old Cold Case", "Mineola Woman's Murder 48 Years Ago Still Unsolved", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Cottingham&oldid=1142468060. Consequently, he was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping. God rest their souls," Bergen County Prosecutor's Chief of Detective Robert Anzilotti said Tuesday after Richard Cottingham of Lodi admitted killing both in 1974. . The photographs are ordered from left to right and top to bottom. Vronsky, who aided investigators in obtaining Junes indictment, is trying to coax as many confessions out of the aging, 300-pound serial killer as possible, but the clock is ticking since he suffers from diabetes and kidney disease, he said. On May 22, Cottingham then picked up Leslie Ann ODell, a 19-year-old runaway desperate to escape her pimp something he promised to help her do over drinks in Midtown. [22][23] He pleaded guilty in a December court appearance, and also officially admitted killing four other women in Long Island: Mary Beth Heinz,[24] Laverne Moye,[16] Sheila Heiman,[25] and Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves.[26]. The potential payoff in return felt almost too important to describe. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. The police were called and Cottingham was apprehended while trying to flee. The 45th year passed in the same way. Its an ongoing process, Vronsky said. No leads were forthcoming. I never thought I would get caught, he added. In 2022, Cottingham also confessed to the 1968 murder of Diane Cusick after DNA evidence linked him to the crime. He did not want his family hassled by reporters or the police, and he vowed to Mr. Anzilotti that he would never again allow himself to be thrust into the spotlight. They sat at the kitchen table, very professional, very polite, very considerate, Ms. Mulder recalled. 0000003107 00000 n Cottingham was convicted of five murders and numerous counts of kidnapping and sexual assault and sentenced to 173 to 197 years, which he is serving in Trentons New Jersey State Prison. The girls vanished Aug. 9, 1974, while hitchhiking to a mall in . 3. Cottingham, a depraved killer already serving more than 200 years in prison, confessed to tossing the 22-year-old mother of two from a bridge ending her familys half-century quest for answers. He had been dubbed the Times Square Torso Ripper setting off Vronskys lifelong fascination of serial killers. Twenty years later, he was reinvestigating several cold cases involving girls and young women who had been abducted, sexually abused and killed. The motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated. He said he would talk about other murders only on the condition that the revelations would be kept out of the papers. I think sometimes he grapples with his own gruesomeness back then., On March 12, a Friday, Mr. Anzilotti summoned the inmate. Following his 1980 arrest, police found, in the locked room and in the trunk of his car, personal effects which they traced to several of his victims. He continued to live here until the police eventually arrested him on May 22nd, 1980. Hed order pizza and play cards with the older man and other detectives. This story has been shared 151,197 times. But there was an even bigger problem. Its not something you can ever get over, Altman, 58, told The Post. [4], On May 3, 1970, Cottingham was married at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Queens Village, Queens. She agreed to have sex with him for money. He also claims that his true victim count is at least 85. But he eventually realized the years-long association, which involved countless state prison visits, was coming to an end. Here are the nine victims Cottingham has confessed to or been convicted of killing: On Oct. 28, 1967, Vogel, 29, told friends she was going to play bingo at a local church. I took over handling the calls, the arrangements. Much like John Moye, Altman, who now lives in Ocala, Fla., said she struggled to process Cottinghams savagery. In April 1978, after his wife had initiated divorce proceedings, he kept a locked room in a basement apartment of the house in which they lived in Lodi, New Jersey. Her breasts had been severed and torso had been set on fire, Vronsky said. Then came Tuesdays pleas. Notably, none of his crimes took place on the property. trailer [6] In 2022, Cottingham officially confessed to the 1970 murder of Lorraine McGraw, under a non-prosecution agreement. That girl was found drowned, similar to Blases killing, he said. Vronsky, whose works also include an authoritative tome cataloging 17,000 years of pathological homicide, said Cottingham scouted his victims before transforming from a family man into a ferocious monster. 0000012661 00000 n trailer Richard Cottingham, the notorious North Jersey serial killer known for dismembering the young women who were so often his victims, publicly confessed Tuesday to drowning two North Bergen girls. Cottingham was indicted in Cusicks killing in June after DNA evidence linked him to the cold-case slaying believed to be the oldest match to ever lead to a prosecution, Nassau County prosecutors said. 0000003686 00000 n It is not a public place. They were marginalized sex workers in a Times Square that was nearly lawless and when the police, at best, looked the other way.. Her name was Nancy Schiava Vogel. The highly-respected law enforcement veteran knew the notorious killer was responsible for the deaths of the North Bergen teens, but Cottingham made him work for it. The New York Times, p. 26. The bridge where Mallory Beach died in a boating accident. When arrested, he had handcuffs, a leather gag, two slave collars, a switchblade knife, replica pistols, and a stockpile of prescription pills. After failing to return home from a trip to buy shoes at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York,[9] 23-year old Diane Cusick was found raped, beaten, and strangled to death in the back seat of her car, parked near the mall. The newspapers called the murderer The Torso Killer. Then on May 22, 1980, a worker at a Quality Inn in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., heard a woman screaming. He was also extremely fidgety and unable to sit still. In this image taken from a New Jersey Courts virtual hearing, Richard Cottingham, center, known as the "Torso Killer," pleads guilty April 27, 2021, to two 1974 murders, finally closing the cold case deaths of teenage friends who had left home for a trip to the mall and never returned. She had been tied up and strangled, authorities said. 0000002435 00000 n Other locations that are relatively close to this place. Cottingham, whose attorney did not return messages seeking comment, has claimed to have killed as many as 100 women.